Since it’s summertime, I thought I’d do a video tutorial this week on how to take great beach photos with your iPhone using Camera+.

This week’s contest theme: Beach Photos

The second contest’s theme is beach photos. Any images taken on or near a beach will be considered for the contest. Photos must be taken with the iPhone using the Camera+ app.

Here are the contest details:

1. Follow me, @mostlylisa on Twitter.
2. Share your photos on Twitter using the Camera+ Share button and include the hashtag #MLPhotoContest in your tweet so we can find you.
3. The contest ends July 15th, 2010 at midnight EDT.

There is no restriction to the number of entries, so feel free to enter as many times as you like! I will announce the winner on Friday, July 16th, 2010.

Roll the credits

When we initially released Camera+, we were pretty exhausted because several of us were up all night preparing its release. As such, I neglected to mention all the people who worked really hard on the app. So I’d like to take this opportunity now to list everyone involved…

First off, I’d like to say that the process of making this app was the most enjoyable out of all of the apps that I’ve developed. I hope everybody else involved had a similar experience. Everyone was very passionate about the app throughout the whole development process and all involved seemed to really be into it just for the sake of making something awesome, which is how some of the coolest things get created.

Karl von Randow

In addition to having a real job where he develops the popular Charles web proxy and some other nifty iPhone apps like Birdbrain Twitter statistics and Mobile Fotos Flickr browser & uploader (and the too awesome for words, Hallokitty), Karl managed to scrape together enough time to serve as the lead engineer on Camera+.

Wolfgang Bartelme

For each and every pixel that appears in Camera+, Wolfgang had his fingerprint on it. He’s undoubtedly the reason that the app looks so beautiful and it took no less that 36 long but fun design sessions to get it that way.

If you’ve only recently been following us, you might enjoy reading about our design process, which something that many of us here enjoy most about working on our apps.

Lisa Bettany

When we started the app, we knew we wanted to have effects in it. We had the choice of putting in a bunch of cliché effects or bringing on a professional photographer with taste. Lisa is definitely in the latter category and she put in a lot of time perfecting dozens of effects so that the photos you take can look like a professional took them, no matter what your skill level is.

And she’ll be bringing you tips and tricks on how to become a better photographer and get the most out of Camera+ so stay tuned here.

Devin Ross

You may recall Devin’s work on the Digg app. For Camera+, he did much of the work on making it possible for you to share your photos via Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. This won’t be the last app you’ll see these sharing panels in because Devin made them extensible so that they can be used many of our upcoming apps… one of which Devin is actually lead engineer on.

Josh Mobley

In the past when we needed sounds for some of our apps, we’ve relied on stock sounds. These can only take you so far, though. We knew that for Camera+, we needed to go the extra mile and have an expert do the job. That expert was Josh and we couldn’t be more pleased with the end result. The sounds fit perfectly into the app and add to the overall experience.

Scott Meinzer

And last, but not least, there’s Scott. It’s often easier for me to dish out criticism than it is to give praise and I sometimes get the feeling that Scott feels underappreciated because of this.

Scott was instrumental in getting Camera+ done. He worked countless hours with everyone else I’ve listed here and took up a lot of my slack. tap tap tap in general simply wouldn’t have grown into what it’s become today if it wasn’t for Scott’s passion for making cool things.

What’s next?

Without going into too much detail, I’d just like to say that we’ve got a ton of things planned for upcoming versions of Camera+. We’ll be adding a bunch more features to take advantage of various iOS 4 technologies. We’ve been listening to all of your feedback and upcoming releases will be incorporating some of the things that many of you’ve been requesting. Keep the feedback coming… even though we don’t have the time to respond to each and every one of you, we’re definitely listening.

In a nutshell, our goal is to make Camera+ be the best camera app ever on the iPhone and we’ll be continuing to work very hard toward that goal.

Congratulations to Nick Keating for winning my ultimate Canon 5DMKII dream rig worth over $10,000 for the promotion of our fabulous new app, Camera+! I hope you create amazing things with this gear and love it with a fiery passion.

Thank you every one for entering and your continued support of Camera+. I love seeing all the great photos you are taking for the weekly photo contests, so keep snapping and sharing for more chances to win more great prizes!

Make sure you keep following us, you never know what kind of sweet giveaways we’ve got up our sleeves. hint, hint.

We just submitted Camera+ 1.1 to Apple for review. It’s a great update, especially if you have a shiny, new iPhone 4 or if you’re using iOS 4. It’ll hopefully be available in the App Store within a few days.

Here’s what’s new in 1.1:

high resolution graphics for iPhone 4 Retina Display

support for multitasking on iOS 4

various fixes for iOS 4

various fixes for iPhone 4

fixed a bug where some users were having trouble logging into Twitter for sharing

support for LED flash and front-facing camera on iPhone 4

speed enhancements to effects processing

various minor bug fixes and enhancements

Camera+ already looked fantastic on older iPhones. With the high-res graphics for iPhone 4, it’s simply stunning now. Thanks to Wolfgang for plowing through literally hundreds of graphics and enhancing them for the Retina Display. And thanks to Karl for his persistence in working to fix a bunch of fairly nasty bugs related to the new hardware and OS.

Final reminder: $10,000+ in camera prizes

And a final reminder… our promo where you can be the lucky person who wins the ultimate Canon 5D Mark II camera rig worth over $10,000 is ending in a few short hours. We’ll be announcing the winner tomorrow. Here’s your very last chance to get your entry in.

And once this promo’s over, be sure to keep following us because we have some awesome new apps right around the corner. A little birdie told me that our upcoming promotion will have everybody receiving some really cool free software. Don’t miss out.

My video tutorial this week focuses on how to take great landscape photos with your iPhone using Camera+. I will be running another Mostly Lisa Photo of the Week contest to encourage you to share your best Camera+ photo and win great prizes.

This week’s contest theme: Landscapes

The second contest’s theme is landscapes. Any nature images taken outside of scenery like mountains, lakes, trees and not fluffy cats will be considered for the contest. Photos must be taken with the iPhone using the Camera+ app.

Here are the contest details:

1. Follow me, @mostlylisa on Twitter.
2. Share your photos on Twitter using the Camera+ Share button and include the hashtag #MLPhotoContest in your tweet so we can find you.
3. The contest ends June 30, 2010 at midnight EDT.

There is no restriction to the number of entries, so feel free to enter as many times as you like! I will announce the winner on Thursday, July 1st, 2010.

Now that we have some actual iPhone 4 devices in our hands, we’re able to test our apps on them. We’re currently working hard on updates to our apps and we’ll hopefully have these out to you soon. We’re happy to say that there are no major issues with our apps on iPhone 4, but there are a few minor things that we’ll be addressing.

If you’re one of the fortunate ones who has an iPhone 4, please report any bugs you find in our apps to us.

Here’s a partial roadmap of some of our upcoming updates (please note that nothing’s set in stone and any of this may change)…

We’ll be putting out an update very soon that fixes some minor visual glitches on iPhone 4. But more significantly, we’ll be adding a complete set of hi-res graphics to fully support the iPhone 4’s Retina Display. This update also has a fix for the people who’ve been having trouble sharing via Twitter within the app.

After this update, we have a more substantial one in the works that’ll take advantage of some awesome iOS 4 features. We’re also adding some handy features that’ll provide more flexibility with effects and editing in general.

Beyond those updates, we have some much bigger things planned for the future of Camera+, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves with particular details yet.

The long-awaited Voices 2 is finally almost ready to go. I won’t spoil the surprise about exactly what’s new with it, but I will say that it has many things that you’ve been requesting. Of course, Voices 2 will have full hi-res Retina Display graphics support. It’s a very nice update and we’re really looking forward to getting this out to you.

The even longer-awaited Convert 2 is coming along nicely. It’ll include many more conversions and currencies that you’ve been pushing for, along with… you guessed it… hi-res graphics for the Retina Display. It’ll also have a major new feature that’s pretty cool and takes the app to a whole new level.

That’s about it for now. We hope you’re going to enjoy what’s coming down the pipeline from us.

Every week, I will be posting a video tutorial with tips and tricks on how to take great photos with your iPhone and our new photo app, Camera+. Along with each video, I will be running a Mostly Lisa Photo of the Week contest to encourage you to share your best Camera+ photo and win great prizes.

The first contest’s theme is street photography. Any images taken outside in urban environments will be considered for the contest. Photos must be taken with the iPhone using the Camera+ app.

Here are the contest details:

1. Follow me, @mostlylisa on Twitter.
2. Share your photos on Twitter using the Camera+ Share button and include the hashtag #MLPhotoContest in your tweet so we can find you.
3. The contest ends June 22, 2010 at midnight EDT.

There is no restriction to the number of entries, so feel free to enter as many times as you like! I will announce the winner on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010.

In the past, we strived to make apps that people would say were, “as if Apple made it themselves”. This, to us, is no longer good enough and one of our major goals is to go beyond what Apple would create. With our latest app, we feel that we’ve achieved that goal.

So, without further adieu, and with no modesty, I present to you Camera+…

Step 1: submit

Step 3: get caught with hand in cookie jar

Options…

become enraged at the fact that Apple has the audacity to reject us for knowingly using code that violates our developer agreement then alert the media in hopes that everyone will be sympathetic to our plight especially Gruber (be sure to link to a post of his saying that he was right about something because we all know that that’s the easiest way to DF linkage) then write Steve Jobs a letter and sulk at his inevitable response where he doesn’t bend an inch then bitch-quit the App Store (only to return with tail between legs 6 months later)

just remove the illegal feature and submit again

Step 4: opt for choice b

Step 5: anxiously smile

Step 6: breathe a huge sigh of relief

Be sure to stop back here Monday to see the app that we’ve been slaving over for the past year…

To celebrate the launch of the digg app for iPhone we ran a promotion where we gave away an iPad a day for two weeks. This past week those iPads finally arrived on my door step! So of course I had to do what any geek would and take my very own set of un-boxing photos.

Un-boxing photos!

’90s Flashback: Packing Peanuts!

The iPads

We worked with the awesome folks at ColorWare to have the iPad’s back custom painted black with the digg logo. It’s really amazing how nice these feel in person, especially how the painted back wraps around right to the edge of the screen. They have a special “soft touch” coating on the back that just feels great in your hands.

Shipping them out

BTW, the folks at your local FedEx Kinko’s Office (don’t worry they’ll tell you 50 times while you are in the store that the name has changed) are pretty good at taking care of boxing things all up. Although they may ask you a few times “Are you sure you want to send those all? You could just give them to me!”

“Wow, that’s a lot of iPads” — FedEx employee

More cool apps and promotions

We have a lot more cool apps in the pipeline and some great promos to go with them — if you thought 14 iPads was crazy wait until you see the promo we have in store for our next app. Make sure to follow us on twitter to be notified the second that happens.

We’re about to release another new app. It’s an app that we’ve been working on for almost a year and is by far our biggest and coolest app to date.

We’re looking for a bunch of beta testers to help us beat the crap out of the app so we can find any remaining bugs/issues before we launch it. If this is you, leave a comment below with your device UDID. Mention what kind of device you have (iPhone 3GS, iPod touch, etc) and why you feel you’d be a good beta tester.

Bear in mind that the app is primarily an iPhone app, but it also works on iPod touch so we’re looking for some testers for those devices. And we’re also looking for some jailbroken devices so be sure to mention if yours is (you jailbreak bastards tend to give us the most trouble but we still want to make sure the app works for you ).